By Bruce Karnick

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In 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week in which May 15 falls is National Police Week. Hastings utilizes that week to celebrate their Officers along with their Fire and EMS staff with a Public Safety Night on the Tuesday of the week.

For the Public Safety Night, the City of Hastings blocks off two blocks of second street for residents to mingle with the various public safety officers. Those officers bring a variety of vehicles, tools and giveaway items for the public to see. This year, there were fire trucks, an ambulance, SWAT vehicles, the police mobile command center, Dakota County air boat, squad cars, and tactical vehicles.

Officers were doing drone demonstrations and two K9 units did a skills demonstration. The demonstration included the K9’s identifying drugs hidden in paint cans, showing off their agility skills and their listening skills and then searching the field for a lost item. The Apple Valley K9 unit joined Officers Dan Vomastek and K9 Sonny for the demonstration, both pairs had just returned from a skills certification, so the demonstration did not include any kind of human takedowns. According to the officers, the K9s were still pretty jacked up from the day of training and certification and they did not want to add any more excitement to their day.

The overall attendance seemed down from last year, many believed it was because the night was significantly cooler than expected and there was a threat of rain, which did not happen until after the event was over.

The Dakota County and Hastings officers are gathered near one of the tactical vehicles for the South Metro SWAT team near the end of the Public Safety event. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Officer Sam Beuch (right) introduces Officers Dan Vomastek and his K9 partner Sonny during a 30 minute skills presentation on the riverfront for National Police Week. Photo by Bruce Karnick